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2017 The Year To Go Green

Our initiative 2017 – The Year To Go Green

At Green Touches, we realize that achieving sustainable development requires action on a number of different fronts. We firmly believe that there is no development in any field without partnerships and shared responsibility to work together for the benefit of society.

In this capacity, we are devoting ourselves to carry out these actions, based on the United Nations Global Compact principles and drive the initiative to enable the cleaning sector to make them responsible for United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) 3 & 9.

We see this as a priority and indeed our responsibility, to pressure the local market to adopt these global goals.

Green Touches is inspired by the words of HRH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan AL Nahyan when he says: “I encourage every person in the position of responsibility to perform his duties honestly and sincere and to double his efforts towards reflecting back the goodness and prosperity to his fellow brothers. The process of development and growth does not depend on people in position of responsibility only. But it needs the joint effort of each person living in this country”.

Our initiative is derived from the principle, and based on the knowledge that, businesses will thrive while supporting sustainability with the transition towards a green economy.

The goals of the initiative:
To achieve the highest levels of sustainability in the cleaning industry and associated practices in this industry in the UAE and the Middle East as a whole.

Key themes and criteria for a sustainable environment have been formulated, crafting a new framework for moving this important sector forward to a new level – Sustainability.

Framework:

• Promote a non-discriminatory approach to the cleaning sector and its employees and seek to change the perception of societies towards this industry, especially in the Gulf region and the Middle East as a whole. The professional cleaning sector employs millions of people around the world and plays a vital role in health, image and perception.
• Promote a new principle for all workers and stakeholders in this sector based, on environmental culture, culture of carbon footprint and the role of the individual in influencing environmental challenges.
• Promote the principle of effective community partnerships to protect the environment and work closely with local communities, relevant organizations and companies and decision-makers.
• Consider any future project that includes the 3 pillars of sustainability, environmental, economic, and social.

Criteria:

• Focus on health & well-being and safety not only cleaning.
• Initiatives and environmental activities aimed at raising awareness as to the dangers of toxic chemicals and providing alternative solutions.
• Initiatives and environmental activities aimed at changing the daily behavior of different groups of society to be environmentally friendly.
• Adopting sustainable new technology that helps this sector to achieve environmental benefits for business improvement.
• Awareness raising, training and staff development.
• Protection and promotion of air quality and groundwater.
• Evaluate our processes and their impact on the ecosystem.
• Environmentally preferable procurement and promotion of manufacturing processes that reduce waste and pollution.
• Measure for progress; “what you can’t measure, you can’t manage”. Measure, track and analyse data. Use surveys and track trends.
• Announce achievements and any successes achieved by employees and the community, in order to maintain momentum and increase environmental awareness. Coupled with highlighting activities and presentations to explain how these activities can help organizations and stakeholders reduce their impact on the environment and the global climate.